Fire Fox Illusions
by meowmeow814
Summary: Fox gods have many powers. But sometimes even with their superhuman powers they fall prey to mortal emotions. This is the story about the border between dreams, fantasies, and realities. AU where Midoriya is a poor shrine temple priest and Todoroki is the fox god of the shrine. Oneshot. Dialogue-heavy. TodoDeku. Slightly ooc maybe?


They say that fox gods have many powers, such as shape shifting or illusions. They may even place their souls in pearls.

Below by the shrine entrance, the summer festival was in full swing. In the cool, violet vesper, the low-hanging paper lamps were like wisps of deep orange foxfires. A breath of air sent the shadows undulating, making what was light dark and what was dark gray. In the liquid fire light, children ran from stall to stall, giggling and tugging on their parents' yukata sleeves for the trinkets. The adults in turn chided them and the families moved along merrily, speaking and at ease. But Izuku couldn't hear what they were saying. Not from where he was, from the top of the steep shrine stairs.

He sat with his arms folded over his knees and the shrine broom at his side, listless. A small smile lighted his lips as he watched the children try to scoop goldfish. Their colorful summer yukata, flashing bright azure and pink morning glories or hydrangeas, made the usually somber and dark shrine entrance regain its old shine. Izuku let out a contented sigh. "I wish it could always be like this… "

The words barely left his mouth when Izuku froze as he heard the sound of cloth on grass behind him. _There shouldn't be anyone else here._ It stopped, but Izuku suddenly felt eyes boring into the base of his neck. With a strangled gulp, he inched his hand toward the broom. His clammy hand slowly clenched around it, white knuckles threatening to break the wood. Izuku remembered nervously the recent news of wolf sightings from the village outskirts.

 _'I'll protect this shrine with everything I have…!'_

 _'Do you promise?'_

"Hyaah!" Izuku leapt to his feet, whirling the broom forward.

Crack!

The broom splintered like a twig. Straw floated down. Izuku's eyes widened.

 _This is…_

A young man stood before him. He wore an extraordinarily beautiful hakama; the pleats were a brilliant red, brighter than any poppy dye Izuku had ever seen. The top was pure white with not a single gray blemish, and the sleeves were adorned with embroidered wisteria and willows among cloudy wisps. But the clothes were ugly compared to what had ensnared Izuku.

 _His eyes._

Izuku couldn't stop himself from staring into the eyes of the boy in front of him. In the high cheekboned and regal face, the jet-black and turquoise eyes intently held Izuku's own. They flickered with an unnatural light beneath bicolored red-white hair. Izuku felt a physical sear go through his body, as though the eyes were peering and prodding into him without his permission. His mind was beginning to blank.

"Who… who are you?" Izuku whispered slowly, all of his energy necessary for just formulating words.

 _So beautiful._

The boy silently flicked a wrist.

Izuku flinched as he saw what flickered behind the human-appearing body.

Nine fox tails.

Snow-tipped, yes. But they weren't fluffy like fur; they crackled and wavered like bonfires, barely controlled columns of flames.

 _Oh._ Oh.

"Thank you. For keeping my shrine safe." The fox dipped his head.

Izuku immediately sank to his knees. He focused his eyes on the rough cobblestones, averting them from the being. "I, of course! I, um… ah… yes… " _What, what's- Am I really meeting the shrine god? Is this a hoax? A dream?_

 _Is the shrine god supposed to be this…_

"No… there is no need to bow. We have met before."

Izuku blinked. "We… we have…?"

"Yes… So many times."

Izuku shivered as he heard, or rather felt, the soft whisper on his ear. _So, so close-! He's so close._ His neck began to feel hot and his cheeks were already blazing. "We, I, have…?" Izuku mumbled in a dazed, distracted voice.

"Yes." An ice-cold hand slipped beside Izuku's cheek and he couldn't help but press against it. _So cool…_ Izuku thought. A slender thumb began to trace his bottom lip, and Izuku couldn't tell if it was burning hot or cold. His eyes were still trained on the ground but now he saw the kneeling figure of the other boy beside his own shadow.

 _'Children, foxes are shapeshifters. They deceive, lie, and cheat. They seduce, defile, and kill. Don't forget this, even when you leave school!'_

Izuku jerked his face away. Izuku jumped away from the surprised fox, a glare stamped on his face. "I, I! I don't-! I'm very sorry, but I don't remember ever meeting you! You must have the wrong person!"

The fox's eyes darkened but Izuku continued on without noticing.

"I am Izuku Izuku, the head shrine monk of the Inari Shrine! And… I intend to always be so! I will never abandon this post, even to death; I'll honor this duty passed down in my family!"

Izuku gripped the hems of his gray-green hakama but his eyes were unwavering. He watched with held breath as the fox closed his eyes, took a breath, and then opened them again. Izuku was slightly more ready this time when his heart tripped at those eyes.

"I… I am grateful for your duty," the fox began. He folded his legs beneath him, the cloth pooling around him. "I am indeed the god of this shrine. As for what I said earlier… well." The fox looked askance towards the festival. "... I must have been mistaken then, surely," he finished softly. "I apologize."

Izuku feels his heart surge, so much so that it sent him into a tailspin. _What- why am I disappointed? I shouldn't even be feeling this way towards a god, what am I doing?_ But in the carefully blank expression of the fox, Izuku didn't miss the flash of hurt that shot through faster than an arrow. _Like a human…_

Izuku clenched his fists again and then unclenched them. His heart roared deafeningly loud in his ears. "... I…" Izuku slowly took a step forward. _Oh no, Izuku, what are you doing, what are you doing-_ "if… if …" Another step. And then another. "Um… maybe… " _This won't end well; you know what they say about foxes. To be respected, at the most, but never-_ "I, maybe I could… sort of, stand in, for… for this other person?"

The fox raised his head, his expression verging on defensive. Even then, Izuku felt his breath stagger as the

eyes locked in with his. "... I don't think you would like that. Judging from your reaction before," he replied dryly.

"No! I, if that was true, then-!" _then you would know how much I want to._ _Wait-_ Izuku had to bite his tongue to not let the words escape.

The fox cocked his head to the side and Izuku managed to say, "er, well, I… I don't mind! A-Anyway!" He plopped himself down in front of the fox and promptly asked, "So who's the other person like?" _I'm playing a dangerous gamble, aren't I,_ Izuku thought briefly but the thought quickly slipped away.

The fox blinked in surprise before letting out a small laugh. "You really…" He sighed and turned his gaze back to the festival below.

"...This festival. Why, or, do you like it?" This time it was Izuku to look at him quizzically.

"How did you know I like it?"

The fox stiffened and Izuku nervously thought the fox tails flickered too fast for a moment, like an erratic candle light.

"... You were saying you wished the festival would last forever. Before." The voice was absolutely calm and smooth.

"O-oh! Yeah. Yeah… " Izuku let his eyes wander among the children and families enjoying themselves below. There was a small crowd around a trio of reed flautists and a shamisen player. Cheerful folk songs that Izuku recognized from his childhood rang faintly even up to where they were. Izuku's expression warmed as he saw people begin to sing along. The fox feigned interest in the scene below to gaze at the other boy from the corner of his eyes.

"I've always loved this midsummer festival. In summer, everyone's stomachs are filled, harvests are expected, and the breeze in the evening is cool. Also… " Izuku gave an embarrassed laugh and ducked his head. "I guess it's strange to say this, especially to a fox god, but I had a dream when I was younger, you see. About this boy with white hair."

The fox god became unnaturally still but Izuku hadn't noticed. "When I was… let's see, maybe around five? I think I accidentally fell asleep in the shadow of the shrine on the day of the festival. I was so tired after brushing up each stair, getting ready for the festival, all of that. And then… "

Here Izuku paused. The fox stared at him, a lump in his throat. Izuku furrowed his eyebrows. "Hmm. I can never remember this part well. Well. I had a dream about the boy. And we played for a bit around here, and I guessed he liked me a lot? And then a red fox gave me a pearl! Or something, it's kind of ridiculous and random isn't it?" Izuku grinned sheepishly. "It's not like I even have a pearl or anything, but I still remember that dream. I've always been lonely, especially when I was younger, since my parents passed away and left me nothing but this shrine so… I was always here with my relatives."

"I,I see. That… that must have been… rough."

Izuku looked off into the gloomy mountains beyond the shrine and the rice fields. "I guess. But, in a way… I barely remember them too. Maybe… it was better this way." He turned to the fox, and the fox held his breath at the look in the boy's shining eyes and the watery smile.

"It's strange," he laughed. "I still feel, just a little! You know. A little lonely some-"

Izuku couldn't finish his words. His eyes widened in shock, and he couldn't stop the welling tears from spilling over. His heart stopped as he felt the icy fingers running through his hair. He began to shake uncontrollably.

The fox withdrew immediately, alarm and shame muddling in his eyes. "I, I'm so sorry, I knew you didn't want this and-" He cut his own words off with a self-disgusted look and he swept to his feet. "I have bothered you tonight; I'll leave immediately-"

" _No, that's not it!_ "

Izuku jumped to his feet. The fox took a step back, staring at the blazing eyes before him. _This time I'm the one trapped by you._

 _But I always was. Always am… and always will be._

"I, I remember! I remember now! Your hair!" Izuku pointed at the perfectly split red and white hair. "It was all white then! Because you were pretending to be a whole human! But now, since you have your tails, your fox spirit…it must be… it's the color red, isn't it?" Izuku said in awe.

The fox tried to swallow but his mouth was too dry. "No, you, you're wrong…"

"You're… Shouto! You're…" Izuku suddenly stopped, his eyes widening. "Wait, that wasn't a dream. That wasn't a dream then. The pearl-"

"NO!"

The fox staggered back and the tails roared to life. Izuku flinched, but he didn't step away from the blasting furnace. He took a brave step forward. "Why did you make me forget you!" _You were my only friend._

"You can't understand!" the fox choked. "I never wanted to hurt you, you can't know! _Don't remember!_ "

"What- I don't understand!" Izuku looked at the fox imploringly, his eyes glimmering. "What is there that you can't tell me? That, that must have been so painful for you?"

Shouto froze, his body paralyzed. _No, nonono, I have to get away-_ But his immobile body couldn't move as Izuku raised a cautious hand up to his cheek. "N-no, stand… away… " Shouto managed to mumble weakly and turn his face. He unintentionally let out a shaky sigh as Izuku's warm hand cusped his face. His eyes fluttered close. _I'm so…_

"I won't. I won't forget you and I won't stay away from you." The voice came resolutely.

"... You really… "

Shouto heard the smile in Izuku's voice as he whispered teasingly, "Don't worry, I've only become more stubborn with my age."

"What are you, an old man?" Shouto grumbled but he felt himself yielding more and more to Izuku's light touch. The fingers gently ran through his hair.

"So soft… " Shouto finally let his eyes open. Izuku's eyes snapped back to him, wide. The bright green, sunshine only a laugh away. How they sparkled with an unnatural shine in the reflection of his foxtails.

Foxtails.

' _Fox demon! You steal our children and wives and livestock; it's time to make you pay!'_

 _The foxes were normal red foxes. If they had wanted a real demon, they should've hurt him. But it didn't matter._

 _The villagers skinned the foxes into rough bags. They then filled them with their still dripping innards. Their laughter as they threw the corpses into the river rang loudly._

 _He couldn't sit by. Not while the intestines were slowly being pulled out of one of the dead foxes as it floated by listlessly._

 _Slowly being pulled out again. He saw how those disgusting wrenches killed the foxes._

"Your eyes… They're beautiful."

' _Oh fox lord! You are the only one who can avenge our fallen family; make those humans pay!' He was never a vengeful god. He was still very young for a fox god._

 _But sometimes, exceptions could be made._

' _Run away! The fox god is here!' He raced through the village in his vulpine form, flames erupting from his jaws. People scattered from his feet to his side like dry leaves in a storm but his target was the speeding wagon in front. His eyes blazed brighter at the sight of the man at the front whipping the horse, one of the men who was by the river that day._

 _Suddenly, there was jostling beneath the tarp in the back and something was shoved out. Fearing it to be an explosion, he rushed to a halt._

Shouto couldn't hold back anymore. "Gods, you're irresistible." He reached forward-

 _The screaming people faded away. He sat on his haunches, dumbfounded. Unable to believe._

His hands hungrily grasped and pulled him in. Closer, closer; he could feel his breath hitch, his chest throb, their hands slowly becoming more desperate.

 _They… they threw off a_ child _. His mind was screaming but the fires in his mouth died away. His eyes stared at the tiny, shriveled figure shaking in the dust._

"Call me by my name," he breathed into his ear. The hair rose on the back of his neck. "You always used to call me by my name."

' _... Who are the real demons.' He shook his head. 'I'll protect you. Even if I have to lie.'_

He swallowed. Somehow, more than any request, this one set his heart on the edge.

' _... Let's go. I know a village nearby. You can be safe.' He nudged with his nuzzle the hand of the child but it lay limp. The small boy at his feet looked up at him and he flinched at the expression on his face._

' _Mommy and Daddy pushed me,' he said matter-of-factly._

' _They don't want me.'_

 _He stared at the boy. He could almost physically see the darkness begin to eat away at his heart. Shouto felt a growl in the back of his throat. But then he placed it on the orphan's forehead._

' _From now on, 'you' are going to be dead. You will be Midoriya Izuku, the only son of a priest for my shrine in the neighboring village. You are living with your relatives, who passed away from a plague along with your parents. You will not remember this incident. You will not remember your previous life. You will not… not remember me.'_

 _The boy crumpled to his feet, unconscious. Shouto gently pulled him onto his back and then ran like lightning._

They slowly bent down, eyes locked on each other and breaths catching. His hair slowly gleamed with a shining white sheen. He stared in wonder as the rising moon pooled its light on him.

' _Shouto! You're back, you're back, you're back!'_

 _Izuku glomped Shouto, almost delirious with joy. 'I've missed you so much! It's so lonely here without you! I don't even have any friends at school, but it's okay because I have you! How about you? Do you like school over in your village?'_

 _Shouto felt his heart wrench painfully. He managed a shaky smile. 'Oh no,' he lied. 'It's much more fun to be with you, Izuku.'_

 _Izuku's eyes suddenly shone bright. 'Does that mean your Dad will let you stay? You always have to go so soon! Please, won't you?' he asked hopefully._

' _No… No. It's a business trip. I have to go with him, Izuku.'_

' _Oh… ' Izuku half-heartedly laughed, trying furiously to disguise his dejection. 'Okay.'_

"Your human form… "

"Don't… don't look at me like that. It's... harder to hide my emotions in this form."

 _The faint sobbing. He would recognize it anywhere._

 _In the shadow of the tiny shrine he had quickly created by illusion so many years ago, Izuku sat wailing._

 _In his hands was the letter. Or more accurately, a slip of paper._

' _To Izuku: I can no longer meet you or see you anymore. Goodbye. -Shouto.'_

 _To Shouto, it was a simple and straightforward message. He could no longer dare to stay by Izuku; already, something painful and sweet, like a skin healing over a thorn, was embedded in his heart. He knew he wouldn't be able to do the final memory erasure of the human 'Shouto' if he lingered. After all, 'Shouto' was only supposed to be temporary, a way to check on the boy to see that he was taking in life well._

 _It shouldn't have been this hard._

 _He should have done the spell where he wouldn't have seen Izuku._

 _But…_

 _One last glance._

' _No! I want to see you, Shouto!' Izuku cried, and Shouto winced as though burnt. 'What will I do without you? I want to always be with you!'_

 _Something broke inside._

' _Sho-' Izuku paused as he felt a soft touch to his side. He glanced down, and to his surprise, there was a small red fox._

"You don't have to hide your feelings. Or your self." Izuku gently moved away Shouto's hands covering his face.

 _It held a small pearl in its jaws. Izuku stared, wide-eyed and open mouthed, as the fox laid it on his lap. Then it swiftly leapt away into the forest, dissipating into mist._

"Not anymore. Your burden… I won't let you carry it anymore."

 _He always watched over this sham shrine. He was as fake a god as he was a shrine keeper._

 _But that wouldn't stop him from watching over this boy. This person, who was slowly taking up more and more of his heart._

"I always knew. I always knew you were watching over me. I always knew that you suffered because of me."

 _His eyes, those brilliant flashes of verdant green. He was the summer sun, he was a sunshower._

The fox stared feverishly at the boy before him. "Izuku. Izuku. I gave you my spirit-"

 _Of course._

 _Of course somebody would notice._

 _He was the sun, afterall._

"-the pearl, you mustn't give it away-"

 _She was beautiful. Eyes bright and clever, mousy hair, with a relatively well-off family that could use a son-in-law-_

"-don't, please-"

 _You fell in love with her._

"-please, you were my everything-"

' _Such an extravagance! Who would've expected a shrine priest to have something like that for a wedding gift!'_

And then it was over.

The show ended.

The fox stared at his empty hands. The wisps of the thick illusion lifted laboriously like a heavy fog. The fading warmth of his imagination dissipated like dew. "It'll be awhile until I can put myself into an illusion that detailed again…" he muttered to himself.

He sat before the abandoned shrine. Dust and dried leaves piled all over the cobblestones, even debris from past years. The fox gazed at the 'festival' before him.

' _This is your new home, Izuku. It's a shrine to a fox god. Don't abandon it.'_

' _I'll protect it with everything I have!'_

 _Even though it wasn't even a real shrine, Shouto felt the glow of joy in his heart._

' _... promise?'_

* * *

A/N: First TodoDeku fanfic! Thanks for reading this fic! Hope I managed to have it make sense and not be too dialogue heavy aaaa.

To recap the plot! Todoroki is a fox god whose hair turns completely white when he is human, completely red when he is a fox, and the canon white-red split when he is in between. He came across a village whose villagers were torturing foxes and so he attacks the village. During the attack, a small boy is thrown at him to appease him/ get him to stop and that boy was Midoriya. Todoroki feels sorry for the boy, who is emotionally scarred from being literally thrown away by his parents (DEF not canon parents; I love Inko). Todoroki uses his fox powers to erase the boy's memories and to instead "recreate" his memories to be the son of some shrine priest to Todoroki's "shrine" (which he doesn't really have but which he creates for the occassion). The boy grows up alone and Todoroki checks in on him occasionally in the shape of a human boy of the same age called Shouto, whose father is a merchant. However, Todoroki feels his growing affection for Midoriya and since he has to erase Midoriya's memories of Shouto in order to be sure that he won't remember him, he decides to distance himself. However, unable to fully do so, he ends up giving Midoriya his "soul" which is a pearl. In reality, Midoriya gives the pearl, whose identity he doesn't know, to Uraraka when he marries her. The 'festival' is really their marriage. Todoroki is watching over the festival from his abandoned shrine. The whole summer festival incident is a fantasy he had created for himself, where Midoriya would have known the truth and have loved/ accepted Todoroki.

… Is my rather convoluted plot, hahaha. I hope this was still enjoyable though! Thank you so much for reading this to the end; please like and review if this was an okay story!

~meowmeow814


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